Help me pick please

@Troy @tommo @Brendan @Adam
Hi everyone! excited to be part of the community.
I think i lost hair trying to combine alternate and economy picking in my playing.
I need to know what I am doing wrong and what I should be practicing to get better at it.
I have officially given up cracking this myself which is why I am seeking this community out.
Thanks,
Majd

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Welcome @Majd ! Would you like to post a short clip of your playing for us to take a look at? I’m travelling at the moment but when I’m back home tomorrow I’ll link our filming instructions, unless someone anticipates me :slight_smile:

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Hi! sorry for the late response. will these videos do?

Lick 1 angle 1:

Lick 1 angle 2:

Lick 2 angle 1:

Lick 2 angle 2:

These are the two main licks that I have been practicing recently

Lick 1 is alternate picking and lick 2 has economy picking in it.

With the alternate picking phrase, I find myself in a mechanical disadvantage having to skip over the D string to hit the A string with an upstroke as you can see in the video.

Since I have been practicing phrases that are alternate and economy, I feel it’s impossible to mix both when I am improvising.

I don’t know what to start practicing to improve. I am not sure if I should stick to alternate picking, or keep mixing economy picking, or maybe I should learn more patterns and phrases.

Advice from the internet says that I should stick to alternate picking because it is easier to catch a groove and use hammer ons and pull offs if certain licks put me in a mechanical disadvantage.

Please let me know his you can help

@tommo sorry forgot to tag you :slight_smile:

Hi @Majd thanks for posting the videos!

Are you purposefully trying to learn the USX-economy style (i.e. upstroke escape + downstroke sweeping)? If so, I would take a step back and check what your fast tremolo on one string looks like. We can have a look together and figure out whether your (current) fast motions are compatible with this style.

I see that you are a masters in mechanics member, so I would recommend that you take a look at the Pickslanting primer “testing your motions” and “tremolo test” sections, and then report back on how you got on :slight_smile:

As far as we know, to improvise fluently in any picking style you need to have a wide vocabulary in that style. Once you have many different combinations of pickstrokes memorised, you should find it easier to find “mechanical solutions on the fly” (still within the limitations of the chosen picking system, of course).

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Hi @tommo thanks! I watched the entire series.
Here is the tremelo video you requested.
I also added another video that I would appreciate your feedback on if possible. Thanks :blush:

Tremelo form:

Question:

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Hey Majd thanks for the filming!

I slowed down the tremolo towards the end (“down the strings “ view) and I think it’s usx as you probably guessed already. To further test this, you could check if this motion works well for simple patterns with only upstroke string changes, e.g. picking 4 or 6 notes per string starting on a downstroke.

Regarding the lick of the second video, I would suggest to add a hammer on on the A string so you can pick the higher note with an upstroke and do everything with USX.

Of course, you can also play it with every note picked if you use motions that allow for both string changes. And to figure that out, the first suggestion would be to just try to play it fast and see what happens!

Currently travelling so I’ll write a bit more asap, in the meantime let me know if you have any questions :slightly_smiling_face:

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Hi @tommo i got a little confused with the hammer on suggestion from your side, can you elaborate more please.

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No probs, here is a makeshift tab, hope it’s readable:

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